First Time in More Than 100 Years, India's Economy Larger Than The UK's

For the first time in more than 100 years, India's economy has managed to surpass that of the United Kingdom, its erstwhile colonial master. A report published by Forbes states that India's economy has over taken that of the UK based on future growth prospects, something that was earlier expected to achieve only by 2020. This makes India the fifth largest GDP after USA, China, Japan and Germany.

"This dramatic shift has been driven by India’s rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well as Britain's recent woes, particularly with the Brexit," the report says. It compares India’s overtaking of the UK’s GDP with Japan's victory over Russia in 1905. "The event helped break the conception of the inability of the East to militarily defeat a western power and also highlighted the economic rise of Japan that had gradually taken place over the second half of the 19th century," the report says.

The report calls it India’s arrival on the global stage and a significant change in power dynamics between India and the west. It says that this achievement should give India the ability to shed any residual notion of colonial inferiority.

"The effects of this are already being witnessed in India’s repudiation of a trade deal with the UK, where it stood firm in its ask for more favorable immigration for Indian nationals. Another example is the failure of May to secure a meeting with the Tata Group, who has 4,000 British employees at a steel plant in Port Talbot, that could potentially be shut down," the report says.

However, the report says India should also redouble its efforts towards furthering market reform given that India’s per capita GDP is still less than one-fifth that of the UK, highlighting the tremendous scope for further convergence.

Union Minister of State for Home, Kiran Rijiju, in a tweet, called India's achievement "historic", adding, "(it) generates emotional satisfaction due to historical background." 

This report in NDTV says economically, it's been a banner year for India. In February, it surpassed China as the world's fastest growing economy. And in October, the International Monetary Fund predicted India would retain that title for the foreseeable future; its GDP is projected to increase by 7.6 percent through 2017.